Movistar's Alejandro Valverde might not have been too happy when the Volta a Catalunya leader's jerey was taken off him but at least he had some joy by taking victory on the third stage.
The third stage had Ben
Hermans of BMC in the leader’s jersey for the 188.3km stage from Mataró
to the climb at La Molina. JJ Rojas and then Alejandro Valverde had been the
race leader but he and his Movistar team were all given a one minute penalty
after the team time trial for pushing Nelson Oliveira and Andrey
Amador during yesterday’s team time trial.
Stage three got under way and
Gianluca Brambilla, Pieter Serry (Quick-Step Floors), Natnael
Berhane (Dimension Data), Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Diego Rubio
(Caja Rural) got into the break and were seven minutes ahead with Ackermann
taking the intermediate sprint after 105kms before they started on the first
climb of the day – the category one - Collada de Tosses.
Ackermann was dropped on the
climb, leaving only Serry, Berhane and Rubio left up front with a lead of 5.10.
Into the Alp valley and Team
Sky were putting the hammer down in preparation for the first climb of the
Molina which has its peak at 1,850m and with thirty kilometres left, the gap
was at 2.44.
Berhane took the points on
the La Molina climb and after taking the points on the first climb, he was now
in the KOM jersey.
The Team Sky led peloton had
the gap down to 1.10 with sixteen kilometres left and a lead of 1.07 when they
started on the La Molina climb.
Berhane, the last in the
break, was reeled in with less than nine kilometres to go as Chris Froome and
Geraint Thomas ride in third and fourth wheel as they started on an 11% climb.
Frome, Thomas and Adam Yates
of Orica Scott plus Dan Martin of Quick Step were all battling with the
incline.
Dan Martin went but Alejandro
Valverde of Movistar came round him and took the win in 5.07.12 with Martin second, Adam Yates in
third place and Geraint Thomas in sixth place.
Tejay Van Garderen of BMC now
leads the race from Sammy Sanchez by 41 seconds.
Article by Kev Monks for Digital Sports Group
Source: DSG
